Author's Note: The last chapter set up the three realities for this story, which I designated "Defiance Captain," "Princess Lieutenant," and "Ensign Expert." Princess Lieutenant is the conventional mostly canon Marrissaverse. Because of how my outline changed, you'll actually get quite a bit less than you'd expect of Princess Lieutenant. Ensign Expert was a late edition to the story. I've rewritten her situation quite a bit, so if you read this before the 2017 revisions, you may find quite a bit of change to her character.

In case you're wondering, the back story of each Marrissa basically starts in the same point. Ensign Expert did not get trapped in the turbolift with Captain Picard. Defiance Captain did, but her life changed shortly there after the battle of Earth. Her story will be fully told in this story, unlike the other two.

November 1, 2017

Escaping

Defiance Captain

Red Alert!" the young girl's voice rang out on the bridge. "Shields up, tell me, Miles, that we have torpedoes?" The young blond girl turned in the command char towards the Irish former Engineer turned Tactical Officer as the ship shook under the impact of the unshielded disrupter hit on the Defiance's ablative armor. Her swollen abdomen was the only reason why she hadn't stood.

"Sorry, sir, but we just got them aboard. Jake hasn't had time to recondition them yet," Miles O'Brien said to his commanding officer. "It will be just phasers this time."

"Right," the girl hit a button on her console. She may have been the youngest on the Bridge, but it was obvious that she wasn't just warming the seat. This girl was the Captain of the Defiance. "Engineering, I hope we've got full power now, because we're going to need it."

"Engineering, T'La, here. Full power is available. Remember, this time, we've got to drop shields for three seconds before we can cloak. Jake has just arrived."

"Good, Bridge out," the girl now looked forward, her expression taking on a cast of determination, perhaps even defiance, befitting her ship's name. "Keiko, evasive pattern Mozart Jupiter, Miles, what do we have?"

"A D'deridex class, Type B, the Haakona, Subcommander Taris commanding," Miles responded, "Shall I return fire?"

"Our old friend Taris," the girl mused, smiling widely. It was not an uncommon expression on her face, those on her crew who saw it knew that the Captain had a plan, and it would be a good one. "By all means, Mister O'Brien, by all means ... but hold for a moment. Keiko, take us about, and ready for attack pattern Bach D." As the Defiance swung around towards its much larger and better armed counter part, the girl stood, with effort. "And I think it's time we finally drop our silence. Open a channel to the Haakona."

"On screen," Miles O'Brien responded, smirking. He had a suspicion that his captain had something really good planned.

Standing firmly in front of her command chair, as the warbird ceased fire, for the moment, the girl met the eyes of her counterpart for the first time. Her amethyst orbs stared into his steel blue, her hair held back by a black band, and her uniform perfect. She spoke first.

"I am Captain Marrissa Amber Flores of the Federation Star ship Defiance. You have invaded Federation Space, and opened fire on us. Leave."

Commander Taris recognized the girl on the Bridge of the Defiance. She was one of the three who had stolen his cloaking device. He wanted it back. More importantly, he wanted to capture the Defiance, not destroy her. Since she had opened communication instead of opening fire, he figured that he had a good chance, even if it ended up to be just teenaged posturing.

"This is Commander Taris of the Romulan Warbird Haakona. Once this was Federation Space, but no longer. Earth, Vulcan, Andor, Debula, Betazed, all have fallen. You are the last Star Fleet Vessel left. Surrender and I will be merciful. Surrender with the cloaking device you stole from me intact, and I might even let you go after I take over your ship."

Taris did not have to wait for a response. "As long as there is one, there is hope, and the people Federation will continue it's defiance to Romulan rule. Even after we are gone, there will be more. As for your cloaking device, I turned in all the appropriate requisitions." Then in quite passable Romulan, she continued, "Access file five six nine zero delta six four execute." The visual disappeared, replaced with a requisition form for the cloaking device. The girl returned to Federation Standard, and said, "So long, and thanks for the fish! Defiance out!"

The Haakona went dark.

Marrissa collapsed into the command chair, as the visual feed cut out. "Execute," she ordered. Her crew sprang into action, as the Defiance began her high speed run on the darkened Haakona. "Single pass, and then cloak and warp us out of here."

"Aye sir," Keiko said from the helm. "Destination?"

"Iota Leonis B," Marrissa decided, "Warp four. Our Iconian cave will do nicely."

As the pass ended, leaving a battered but still repairable Haakona behind, just beginning to bring up its crashed computer, Miles turned toward Marrissa. "Thanks for the fish?"

Princess Lieutenant

Quantum filaments are very thin, but they stretch for light years on end. In fact, of the ones that have been spotted, only one end has ever been spotted. Where the other end is, is anyone's guess. The expert has recently advanced the opinion that they aren't even natural. Her colleges aren't quite willing to say that. Actually, they debated it quite a bit. The expert didn't really involve herself in the debate. She was too introverted to do it, really. The expert hadn't had Captain Picard to draw her out of it. In her reality, Riker commanded the Enterprise, and he was more interested in helping Jay Gordon than drawing out little Marrissa Flores.

Her reality, however, is not the other one involved. Perhaps if the Commander of the Defiance had reversed course, or even went directly into the center of the orbiting quantum singularities she might have been involved. In another reality spun off by the cusp of the Commander of the Defiance's orders, perhaps she was. But down the path of the quantum filaments that the Defiance was unknowingly following was a different reality.

In that reality she wasn't the commander, nor was she the expert. She wasn't a plain simple tailor there either. No, in that reality, she was the Princess, the Lieutenant, the Chief of Security.

Her Royal Highness, Lieutenant Marrissa Amber Picard, Princess of Halifax, Heir to the throne of the Constitutional Monarchy of the Federation Member World of Essex, entered the bridge in her dress whites. "All dressed up, I see," Commander William T. Riker said from the center seat.

"Retirement home for Star Fleet Officers," Marrssa explained as she took her post behind the tactical station. "Some of them had some really interesting stories. Especially those about the Cardassian Wars. You might want to visit sometime."

"I'm afraid that I don't have the excuses you do, Lieutenant," Riker replied, as the ready room door opened. "First Officer is a full time job."

"So is Chief of Security, and apparently being heir to a throne," Marrissa said. "At least while we're stationed in the system. Sometimes I wish I had an excuse."

"What did I tell you about excuses, Marrissa?" Captain Jean-Luc Picard asked, as the ready room door closed behind him.

"Avoid them unless absolutely necessary," Marrissa looking up at her adopted father. "You also said I was working too hard. I still say I'm not."

"Number One, have you looked at my daughter's schedule recently?" Picard asked, as he replaced Riker in the center seat.

"Not lately, Captain," Riker said. "I can say that she's been keeping up with her studies. In fact she's a couple months ahead. More so in the Sciences, as usual."

"This morning she woke up at 0430 hours," Picard recited. "She took a 5k jog, probably outlasting a couple less than fit crew members, if history is any indication, around the saucer section, before coming back for a shower. She then put on her dress whites ... in the middle of the quarters ... and beamed down to Essex, where she spent the next two hours visiting retired Star Fleet Officers. Marrissa will be spending the rest of this shift at tactical, before going to challenge two of the new Ensigns in a little saber match. While she waits for dinner time, I'm informed that she'll be practicing her Sabre dance routine, hopefully not in the corridors this time, and closer to Sickbay. After dinner, she'll do her studies, including all her briefings, before collapsing into bed around 2200 hours."

"I have not injured myself practicing that routine in over a month," Marrissa replied insistently, as she initiated the regular in depth scan of the area.

"Notice, Number One, that she didn't deny that she was collapsing into bed," Picard remarked.

Ensign Expert

If the expert had been monitoring the sensor returns, she might have recognized the barely detectable signs of what was coming. Of course that would have been because the expert was an expert. Lieutenant Marrissa Picard wasn't quite up to that level. She dismissed it as random space noise.

The expert wasn't quite on the Bridge yet. She was still in the turbolift with the boy that in another universe would be her best friend. Of course in her universe Acting Ensign Jay Gordon was a teenage boy her age that she'd watched from a far since Captain Riker had took him under his wing. She'd seen him exercising shirtless in one of the ship's gyms, blushed, and tried to hide her interest. It wasn't exactly working.